


River of Stars

by justmccallmeangel (wingzero_ascension)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Pre-Kerberos Mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-07 00:59:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11612634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingzero_ascension/pseuds/justmccallmeangel
Summary: Pre-Kerberos, Shiro tells Keith the legend of Tanabata, the Japanese Star Festival. They agree to meet after Shiro's mission to Kerberos like the lovers in the legend, but unfortunately that's not a promise Shiro can keep.





	River of Stars

“Okay, one more time. I’ll get it this time, I swear.” Keith folded his arms, looking up at Shiro expectantly. The taller boy was trying not to laugh, he could tell, and although he’d like to be mad about it, a part of Keith _wanted_ to hear Shiro laugh, prolonging the banter because it made him smile.

“Alright, but only _one_ more time.” Taking a breath, Shiro sounded out the Japanese word for him again, breaking it down into syllables. “ _Ta-na-ba-ta_.”

“That’s what I said!” Seriously, he’d said exactly the same thing.

“No,” Shiro finally snickered, unable to hold it back. “It’s really not.” Instead of using a long ‘ah’ sound Keith kept shortening the ‘a,’ clipping the word together in a distinctly American cadence. “Tanabata.”

“Tan-a-bat-a.”

“Nope.”

“Ugh!” Keith flopped back on the ground, staring up at the starry sky above them. Nowhere he’d been had as many stars as the desert. The heat burned everything else away, and when night fell only the purples and blacks painted the sky, sprinkled with countless embers of cold fire. “Forget it, I give up. You said it was a star festival, let’s just call it ‘Star Festival.’”

Chuckling softly, Shiro leaned back on his hands beside Keith, tilting his head to watch the sky. “Okay, Star Festival.” He looked down at Keith, a grin tugging at his lips. “Funny how you don’t have any trouble saying my full name.”

A flush colored Keith’s cheeks and he was grateful for the cover of darkness. “Your name is important, that… isn’t.” He squirmed slightly, sobering as he scanned the horizon. “I hate that I can’t see it.”

“It’s up there; you just can’t see it with the naked eye.” Keith felt Shiro’s gaze on him, just before the light touch on his arm. “I’m not going to be gone forever, just a few months.”

_A few months_. Not that long, right? Time for Keith to keep working on his studies and push toward graduation, time to catch up. Time enough to make sure that _next_ time, Shiro couldn’t leave him behind. “It’ll just feel like forever.” Biting his lip, he found Shiro’s eyes in the starlit darkness, slowly sitting up so their shoulders touched.

“Not forever,” Shiro repeated quietly. “Just long enough to get to Kerberos and back.” Neither of them looked away, and the night of the mission announcement vividly replayed in his mind; the night they’d kissed.

“Tell me again, the story about the star festival.” His voice sounded hoarse even to his ears, but he was eager to seize any distraction that kept him from thinking about how soft Shiro’s lips had been.

The older boy blinked, seeming startled by the change of direction as he considered Keith’s request. “Um, well… There were two lovers—“ He looked up, searching the sky for two particular stars. “Vega and Altair.” Pointing them out, he continued. “They were separated by the Milky Way, which runs like a great river through the heavens. The King took pity on them, and decreed that they could be together once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month, if the skies were clear. When the day came, the river was too wide for them to cross. Vega was so heartbroken that the magpies rose up and made a bridge across the river with their wings, allowing her to cross over.”

Keith watched him in profile, the way he gazed up at the starry sky as though it overflowed with endless possibilities. “How do you make a bridge out of magpies?” He was rewarded with real laughter this time, gentle and free.

“I don’t think that’s the point of the—“

“I mean I guess you could lash them together like a cord of wood, but I’m not sure the magpies would like that.”

“Oh my god, you’re such a dork!” Shiro snagged an arm around Keith, tugging him against his side and ruffling his hair, laughing again in a way that made Keith’s heart race.

“Hey, inappropriate touching! I will totally kick your ass, Shirogane!” He could, he’d done it before. Granted, Shiro had put him on his ass in turn, they were fairly even in that respect, but his protestations now were all in play.

“Yeah yeah, so you said.” They tussled briefly, and Keith ended up half-draped across Shiro’s lap. “Sounds like all talk to me.”

Keith snorted, prodding an elbow into Shiro’s ribs just hard enough to make his point. “No proper motivation, but I could change my mind.” He lifted his head, intending to toss out a challenge, only to realize their faces were now only inches apart. Every thought in his head abruptly vanished save one. “Seventh day of the seventh month, right?”

Shiro nodded. “S-sometimes it’s August, instead of July. You know… Japanese stuff.”

“You’ll be back by then?”

Shiro nodded again, neither of them had moved. “Should be.”

A slow smile curved Keith’s lips, and he realized he could feel the heat of Shiro’s body, catching the scent of sandalwood soap and clean skin. “Meet you on the other side? Don’t forget the magpies.”

Their foreheads touched, and Shiro’s voice sounded intriguingly deep and resonant with Keith leaning against his chest. “I’ll be there, even if I have to swim across a river of stars.”

In the cool and quiet of the desert night, with only the stars to bear witness, they kissed for the second time… and the third, losing count long before they broke apart.

 

The appointed day came and went, but the Kerberos mission never returned to Earth. Shiro was gone, the blame for the mission’s failure placed squarely on his shoulders. The dark and empty desert swallowed Keith whole, and every night, the river of stars wound lazily across the sky, a promise unfulfilled.

In the year that followed, Keith lost himself a bit at a time. Grief was the mortar, but an indefinable and restless sense of waiting, of seeking something he could never find, was the cruel pestle that ground him down. Even in his darkest moments, there were no magpies to take pity on him, and the river’s dark and endless expanse yawned wide above his head.

Then the world changed in a moment, and a half-drowned traveler clawed his way back into Keith’s life. The suffering of a year in captivity was written on nearly every inch of Shiro’s skin, the gentle warmth of his right hand replaced by cold steel, and his dark hair was split by a shock of white. Emotions beyond words threatened to split Keith open: joy that he was alive, red-hot fury for what had been done to him, and a sobering fear that everything they’d been before was lost.

Once they’d freed him, there were too many people to talk, virtual strangers who seemed determined to hang around. But a moment came outside, when he dared to touch him, to welcome him back in the most neutral way he knew how. Shiro’s hesitated, then his eyes lifted to the river of stars, and he turned to face Keith, a sad and weary smile on his lips. “I told you… even if I had to swim, I’d cross that river and find you.”

Keith swallowed hard and reached for him, hugging him tight. “Better late than never.”

 


End file.
